Morning Report: Best and worst of Phillies outfielders

The Inquirer is midway through an entertaining preseason look at baseball, position by position.

The series, of course, is a baseball writers' guide to the sport.

The Morning Report offers The Fans' Guide to Phillies History.

Today: The Outfielders

Right field

Best arm: Johnny Callison. Led the league in assists four times while Roberto Clemente played for Pittsburgh.

Most spineless: Bobby Abreu. Would stop 15 feet from the wall because he literally was scared of its shadow.

Stupidest: Roger Freed. His nickname was "The Donkey," and long experience says anyone who is the butt of jokes in a baseball locker room is an incredibly dim bulb.

Best-looking athlete who was actually a stiff: Von Hayes. Tall, lean, good looking, with a perfect batting stance and an elegant throwing motion, Hayes sure looked the part. But he never hit in the clutch and was a terrible base runner.

Left field

Worst-looking athlete who was actually a good player: Greg Luzinski. Overweight, slow and derided as dull-witted, "The Bull" hit .300 three years in a row despite a total absence of any natural speed, and knew the game inside and out.

Most out to lunch. Jeff Stone. Refused to bring home a television from the Puerto Rican winter league because "it only gets Spanish stations."

Best player despite a drug habit: Lonnie Smith. Hit .339 in 100 games as the Phillies won the World Series in 1980. He admitted later that he always slid headfirst because he kept his cocaine vials in his rear pocket.

Most famous for having done absolutely nothing: Jerry Martin. He's the guy Danny Ozark failed to send in for defense against the Dodgers in 1977, making Luzinski the goat of a lost series.

Center field

Best range. Garry Maddox, who set an unofficial career record for most balls caught in left by a centerfielder in the decade he played beside Luzinski.

Best clutch hitter. Len Dykstra. "Nails" had 10 postseason home runs in his career. Mike Schmidt had four.

Most underrated. Tony Gonzalez. Hit .300 three times, including .339 in 1967. But he followed the revered Richie Ashburn and preceded Maddox and Dykstra, so he has faded in fans' memories.